South Korean stocks opened lower Wednesday, tracking an overnight loss on Wall Street, as investors bet that the Federal Reserve will deliver another sharp rate hike this week.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) inched down 8.04 points, or 0.34 percent, to 2,359.81 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Overnight, US stocks slumped as investors fret that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) would opt to push the US benchmark rate by 75 basis points, which could further accelerate a global economic recession.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the tech-heavy Nasdaq sank by some 1 percent. The S&P500 lost more than 1 percent on the prospect of a sharp rate hike by the Fed.

In Seoul, most large cap shares traded lower with tech shares leading the overall market decline.

Top cap Samsung Electronics shed 0.9 percent, major chipmaker SK hynix lost 1.02 percent, and leading automaker Hyundai Motor slid 0.76 percent.

Naver dipped 1.38 percent, and Kakao lost 1.07 percent.

Battery makers were mixed, with LG Energy Solution advancing 0.72 percent while Samsung SDI dropped 1.42 percent.

The local currency was changing hands at 1,389.8 won against the greenback as of 9:15 a.m., down 0.3 won from Tuesday's close. (Yonhap)